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People with disabilities say President Trump's DEI purge is eroding health care, education and legal protections they've only won in recent decades.

Why it matters: The Trump administration has taken actions that undermine accessibility measures — critical for leveling the playing field for people with disabilities — as part of its efforts targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

• "It's very clear that there is an orchestrated attack by conservatives to dismantle the rights of people with disabilities," said Shawn Murinko, a Washington resident who has cerebral palsy. 

State of play: Trump last month ordered an end to all federal programs that mandate or invoke accessibility, alongside diversity, equity and inclusion.

• The Department of Justice said it will penalize programs that promote accessibility.

• Long COVID may affect millions of Mexicans, but a lack of information prohibits adequate medical care and innovative research.
   
• Some Mexican doctors are calling on the government to establish a national clinical guideline, which could direct local clinics and medical experts on how best to diagnose and treat the disease.
   
• Similar to other countries, the government places higher-priority on surveilling and addressing other easier-to-diagnose diseases, like dengue.
   
• Despite attempts to approve a clinical guideline, the government agency in charge of approvals has yet to review the proposal.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25920977

You must be doing something right

A new executive order from the Trump Administration commands the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to terminate the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID.

The Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID includes 14 members, composed of patient advocates, physicians, researchers, and others, some with lived experience of the disease. Despite being classified as special government employees, the committee members are unpaid volunteers.

The executive order follows removal of important Long COVID information and data from federal websites since the Trump Administration took office this year. These include government resources about Long COVID as a disability, the Pulse Household Survey, as well as important COVID-19 data.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/485330

Europe and Ukraine are learning how little the U.S. cares, as the new president aligns himself with their greatest enemy.

The thing about a war is it forces people to pick a side. And Donald Trump, it seems to many in Europe, is siding with Vladimir Putin. 

Seven days of presidential interventions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have made real the nightmares of Ukrainians and many of their allies, upending the transatlantic relationship that has underpinned European security since 1945.

If there were any lingering doubts about the extent of Trump’s willingness to make enemies in Europe, he ended it Tuesday night when he blamed Ukraine for having “started” the war with Russia. Such blatant defiance of the fact of Putin’s unprovoked invasion three years ago shocked even America’s most loyal friends in the region. 

“Jesus,” one British government official said privately in response to the president’s outburst. 

“We now have an alliance between a Russian president who wants to destroy Europe and an American president who also wants to destroy Europe,” another European diplomat observed in recent days, declining to be identified discussing sensitive matters. “The transatlantic alliance is over.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25743370

One day

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25739115

problem rule

The worst flu season in 15 years has left hundreds of thousands of Americans hospitalized while straining physicians' offices and emergency departments.

Why it matters: The virus is causing more severe complications and hitting young children especially hard.

"The two predominant strains that are circulating right now are known to be more severe and have more severe outcomes, especially in high-risk patients," said Carol McLay, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Turns out having multiple infections run around wild does not “strengthen” our immune system. Who would have thought /s

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to end the federal procurement of paper straws. 

The order, which claims that paper straws are “nonfunctional” and says it wants to end the “forced use” of them, immediately undoes part of a Biden-era initiative to eliminate single-use plastics, including straws, in all government operations by 2035. More broadly, Trump instructed White House staff and “relevant agencies” to issue a “national strategy to end the use of paper straws” within 45 days. The strategy would aim to eliminate all executive branch policies “designed to disfavor plastic straws” and address the federal government’s contracts with states and and other entities “that ban or penalize plastic straw purchase or use.”